Young Models Get Labour Rights in New York City

Models under the age of 18 in the New York City are now recognized as child performers.

Instead of being overseen by the Department of Education, underage models will now be under the Department of Labor—the legislation to switch departments was passed four months ago and Governor Andrew Cuomo has now signed the law. This law will limit the number of hours they can work, will give them a curfew, and demand the presence of chaperones on set.

Designers will also need to fill out extensive paper work and will be fined up to US $3,000 (for their third offence) if they break this new law. A vocal advocate for this game-changing law, Canadian model and mentor on The Face, Coco Rocha, attended a press conference earlier this week in SoHo, celebrating this long-time-c0ming law in the fashion and modeling industry.

We’re intrigued to see how this will effect New York Fashion Week’s model lineup next season.